


Parshaara

by AuditoryCheesecake



Series: A Cheesecake's Tumblr Shorts [23]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Adoribull - Freeform, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, The Iron Bull Has Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 22:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8552713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuditoryCheesecake/pseuds/AuditoryCheesecake
Summary: The Iron Bull has many questions, but only asks the one he knows the answer too.





	

In the night, he is certain. With Dorian as a center, as an anchor, he can take what he is given. The limits are set and the rules defined. He can want, because what he wants is before him.

But in the morning, it’s not so clear.

What he wants is Dorian, and Dorian is here, but it feels so temporary. Dorian sleeping has no answers for his questions, no needs for him to fulfill. He simply is, and the Bull is left to wonder.

How long will Dorian need him?

When this war ends, and he moves on to fight someone else’s battles for someone else’s money… will Dorian still be here?

Oh, he’s going back to Tevinter, anyone can see that.

Will he still be _here_? In the Bull’s mind, in his veins, in his hands? When the Bull leaves, will he carry Dorian with him? He wants to.

His thoughts are floating disconnections, a distant sense of wonder: what is this? How can it exist in a world where demons shaped like men kill children and bleed each other dry for a single drop of power?

How did Dorian survive Tevinter just to land here, beside him, sleep-ruffled and breathing softly? How did this pocket of peace form in his own violent, blood-soaked life?

How did Dorian, a storm, a spirit-raiser, saarebas, so dangerous, come to put aside his weapons and lay here, with only bones and skin between his hand and the Bull’s heart?

Does it baffle Dorian the same way? Likely not. Does it matter the same? He doesn’t know how to ask that question.

Maybe he doesn’t need to.

What matters is that tomorrow, there will be another battle. Like any battle, it could be the last one. For either of them, for the Boss, for the entire Inquisition. He will heft his ax and Dorian his staff and they will kill and kill and maybe live and maybe die.

Always, it comes back to that: one day, somehow, Dorian will be lost to him.

But in this moment, he is here. His heart beats and his eyelashes flutter in the slowly kindling sunrise.

“Bull.” His voice is rough, his hands reaching. “You’re still here.”

“There somewhere else I should be?”

His hands are points of fire, his lips lightning, his eyes silverite and smoke. His voice is rough as volcanic stones on the shores of Seheron. “I thought I–” he presses closer, seeking something. “No, I dreamt that you–”

His hair is silk under the Bull’s calloused fingers, his kisses ocean-deep. He holds the Bull still with both hands on his face.

“You’re still here,” he says again. It’s little more than a whisper against the Bull’s lips. His fingers clench and relax and clench again.

Dorian pulls in a shaky breath, and it pushes the Bull’s own words aside. He is needed. In this moment, in this place. He strokes the curve of Dorian’s spine, presses their bodies together to feel Dorian against him. Solid, strong, the same.

“I’m being foolish,” Dorian whispers, to forestall the question on the Bull’s tongue. “But humor me anyways.” His hands roam across the Bull’s skin, finding every scar. He mutters a few words of Tevene– _unburnt, unbroken, unbloodied, here, still here, my–_ the Bull has not yet told him that he can understand.

Warm hands return to his face, he is kissed again. “Satisfied?” he asks.

“Never.” Dorian’s leg slides across his hip. They turn, and Dorian’s skin is burnished in the slanting sunlight. The marks at the hollow of his throat and on his thighs are signs that the Bull has touched him. Their fingers tangle as Dorian leans down to brush his lips across the Bull’s. He smiles.

This is something he can work with. This is something he can do for Dorian.

For now, they are both here, and he can give to Dorian what Dorian asks for. He will not leave until he is asked to, and he will carry Dorian in his dreams when he goes.

Dorian is a point around which the Bull orbits, the world turns, the stars spin. Even if he weren’t here, he’d be on his way back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! <3 Come say hi [ on Tumblr <3](http://acheesecakewrites.tumblr.com/)!


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